A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

James Flanagan

Eng 102- Toliver

07 March 2023 Swift’s “Proposal" Summary and Analysis

Jonathan Swift, a political pamphleteer, Anglican clergyman, and Anglo-Irishmen, anonymously discusses in a pamphlet Swift publishes in Dublin, Ireland, the solution to famine, homelessness, economic failure, and poverty. Swift, in "A Modest Proposal," argues that cannibalism and infanticide can solve Ireland’s problems and become a prospering nation. Swift discusses that this solution will enable mothers to receive payment for selling children, allowing taverns to prosper, reducing the number of catholic people in Ireland, giving payment for debts,

Swift calculates the population of Ireland, how many children are born per year, and how much money is spent to raise a child for one year. Swift convinces the poorer families on the streets that if every mother had two children and made 10 shillings per child at the end of that year by selling them to the local tavern, the money earned would be 20 shillings total, 4 for the cost to raise the infants and 16 profit. Swift uses the idea of homelessness and starvation to convince the public to consider the pamphlet so that families can afford homes, pay off debts, and live comfortable lives. Swift wants not only to convince the general public of the "Proposal," but Swift also his intelligence. The audience wants to understand the reasoning behind the source backed with statical data. The more evidence and dates Swift uses, the more the reader can understand and commit the "Prospal" to memory while considering the topic a solution instead of a baseless waste of time. Swift wants every person from Ireland and Britain to learn of this text so the British parliament can fix the atrocities happening to one of the colonies so close to the mainland of

Swift uses two animals as the source of comparison, pigs for one-year-olds and deer for “12 to 14-year-olds.” Swift uses these animals since the majority of the population knows the taste and texture of wild game and fatty pig by-products like bacon. Swift knows that families want high-end products on the tables at the end of the night, and making the citizens crave children’s flesh now in abundance will cause circulate more money in the economy, and more families will not starve. Swift wants these children to be helpful instead of dying with no purpose. Swift uses the eating of teenagers to further his agenda by decreasing the amount of "Papists" or Roman Catholics that can be indoctrinated by the Holy Roman Church every year. Swift includes animals that would be associated with healthy marriages raising children, "mares in foal, their cows in cafe, or sows when they are ready to farrow." Swift wants more healthy marriages to avoid the husbands from beating their wives and treating the mother of their children with more respect since they bring in a large sum of income every year with their bodies and well-being. Swift was against all abortions and miscarriages because of the wasted material that could be used in the creation of food or devotion to the British Church under the teachers of the church located in Dublin,